137 Comments

+1 -- simple is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. For freelancers and those of us who charge for our services this is a great way to keep us accountable to make sure we bill the clients for all the time we spend on THEIR projects.

I do something similar but I'm an overachiever that needs a bit more balance, so I have three sections: 1. Absolutely must do today. I never put more than 2 items in this section. 2. Things that will earn me money - This section always gets my attention 3. Things that would be good to do but if I write them down for tomorrow I'm still doing well.

I have tried so many different methods like MS Outlook calendar and tasks, loads of apps but always come back to pen and paper. My bad habit is having too many to do lists on the go at once and adding more tasks throughout the day, plus I keep throwing them away.

I like the idea of filing them and will start doing this immediately. I always have a master list on a sheet of paper that I add to, amend and rewrite once a week and I tend to write a daily list, usually on a scrap of paper, because the long list is too scary!

Your method is simpler and far more elegant so I am stealing it! I think combined with a weekly updated master list it is the perfect solution for a committed procrastinator.

This is so retro. Your mother must be so proud. I have several lists I fill out by day, but I don't know how long things take because I have a tendency to work at several subjects at the same time. Focus??? Here, puppy, puppy. Oh yes, I do love your good idea. I hope it helps lots of people.

Ann Mullen who recently posted Caring At Home: Are You Living with Excess Clutter? at http://bit.ly/QuOis5.

I have also tried every to-do app in the book and always end up defaulting to pen & paper.....That is, until I found Trello! Love the scrum board view, keeps me motivated and because I have a lot of freelance work this help me keep track of everything so I can easily invoice for completed items.

I enjoyed the video. Thank you for sharing your list. I was wondering if you would consider making your list into a digital version on excel so that it can be downloaded and used? It would be easier to print rather than making daily lines and grids.

This looks neat :)I do a modified version of the Muji Chronotebook. Don't know what that is? Look up Jack Check's blog post on it here (link: http://blog.jackcheng.com/post/2521777514/muji-chronotebook)

I typically write a list of to-do's in a post-it note. Then I allot hours in another post-it, or same post-it if I have room, drawing two circles with AM/PM and divying up hours visually on the circle.

Sometimes my own To-Do's inspired me and make me want to do them all. :)

And whatever I don't get done, I carry over to the next day, with fresh-new post-its.

I *don't* save my post-its though... Should I start saving them?? It looks like it would be good habit to do so...

I love your binder, you've got a lot of stuff done over the last few years.

I find I swap and change my todo list methodology every few days. Sometimes I use the laptop, sometimes the iPad, sometimes a piece of paper. Whatever it is, it works for a day or too, then mysteriously loses it's power.

Neville, loved your video (you are quite animated and make something as simple as a to-do list interesting ;)

I am a paper and pen/pencil kinda gal and have found that it is tried and true and only a hand movement away when I need to shika, shika, shika!!!

I shall absolutely add the piece of paper and tape. G.E.N.I.U.S., especially for someone like me who is so easily distracted by more than one visual in front of me at a time! LOL! No more saying to myself, "There is no way I will complete all of this today!"

The Paper Cover thing is amazing. I tend to look at my to-do list and find the easiest thing....and then procrastinate the rest.

With the paper covering everything else (especially if in the morning you arrive at a taped-up to-do list with only ONE THING on it), there's really no question about what you need to start on right away :-)

I have stacks of this paper - works great if I work on a single project at a time. With multiple projects and clients I could not survive without todo list software. My recent favorites were bugtracker.net and lately collabtive. A software todo has to be as easy as pen and paper, a single step, a single copy paste a single entry or post nothing else.

My routine (after many years of being Lady Gaga like) is to print out my daily calendar from Outlook at 4pm for the following day. Then I take 15 min to compile my to-do list for the following day. I print it out so I don't need to have Outlook open (helps avoid checking emails!) and I have all my appointments right there. Then I can block off time for my to-do list. If I can't fit it in I put it down the side for the next day!